lors now spoke only of the rights of the throne, and Professor
Burguet, the elder, wrote a speech on the subject which Baron
Parmentier read. But all this produced but little effect on the
people, because every one was afraid of being carried off by the
conscription, and knew that many more soldiers were needed; all were in
trouble, and I grew thinner day by day. In vain would Monsieur Goulden
say: "Fear nothing, Joseph; you cannot march. Consider, my child, that
any one as lame as you would give out at the end of the first mile."

But all this did not lessen my uneasiness.

Monsieur Goulden, often, too, when we were alone at work, would say to
me:

"If those who are now masters, and who tell us that God placed them
here on earth to make us happy, would foresee at the beginning of a
campaign the poor old men, the hapless mothers, whose very hearts they
have torn away to satisfy their pride--if they could see the tears and
hear the groans of these poor people when they are coldly told 'Your
son is dead; you will see him no more; he perished, crushed by horses'
hoofs, or torn to pieces by a cannon-ball, or died mayhap afar off in a
hospital, after having his arm or leg cut off,--burning with fever,
without one kind word to console him, but calling for his parents as
when he was an infant,'--if, I say, these haughty ones of earth could
thus see the tears of those mothers, I do not believe that one among
them would be barbarous enough to continue the war. But they think
nothing of this; they think other folks do not love their children as
they love theirs; they think people are no more than beasts. They are
wrong; all their great genius, their lofty notions of glory, are as
nothing, for there is only one thing for which a people should fly to
arms--men, women, children--old and young. It is when their liberty is
assailed as ours was in '92--then all should die or conquer together;
he who remains behind is a coward, who would have others fight for
him;--the victory then is not for a few, but for all;--then sons and
fathers are defending their families; if they are killed, it is a
misfortune, to be sure, but they die for their rights. Such a man,
Joseph, is the only just one, the one of which no one can complain; all
others are shameful, and the glory they bring is not glory fit for a
man, but only for a wild beast."

On the eighth of January, a huge placard was posted on the town-hall,
stating that the Emperor wou